Ash Ketchum: Battle of the Ampere

Ch. 42 Surprise Inspection

   The engine room door was constructed of inch-thick metal with a large glass portal that gave those inside a clear view of the corridor. I grasped the handle and slowly spun it until it opened. Not surprisingly, there was an armed guard stationed near the entrance. He immediately turned to us, his hand hovering near his sidearm.

  "What are you doing here?" He asked.

   Clemont stepped forward. "Seaman Citron, first class," he said. "The admiral sent us down for a surprise inspection."

  "I wasn't informed of this," the man said.

  "Hence the surprise. . ." Clemont said.

   The man stared at him. "I received no notice of an inspection," he said.

  "Perhaps you don't grasp the concept of surprise," Clemont said.

  "You're not authorized to be here," he said. "I'm alerting security. "

   He reached for his radio, but Serena rebooted him. His expression went blank and for a moment he just stared at the radio as if trying to remember why he was holding it. He blinked several times, then looked back at us. "Who are you?"

  "You were taking us to the engineer," I said.

   He still looked confused. "Sorry, I . . ." He looked at us all and dazed. "This way."

   The Ampere's engine room wasn't anything like I had imagined it would be. I'd never seen an engine room, outside of black-and-white photographs of old steam ships with glowing furnaces fed by men with soot-blackened faces shoveling from coal scuttles. The Ampere's engine room was about as far from that as possible. The room was brightly lit with stark white walls and white paneled ceilings with thick chrome pipes running both vertically and horizontally. The ship's engines, four of them, were mounted in the middle of the floor with chrome pipes leading into them from different angles. The floor was made of steel plating, forged with diamond patterns for better traction.

   The engineer was standing near a bank of gauges and switches. He didn't look any happier to see us than the guard had. He snapped at the guard, "What are these sailors doing in here?"

  "Dr. Cyrus sent us," Calem said.

  "Admiral Cyrus," Clemont corrected. "Surprise inspection."

  "Galactic protocol does not allow surprise inspections," the engineer said.

  "Exactly," Clemont said. "Surprise."

   He looked us over, then said, "You all have the same serial number." His expression of him changed. "You're not Galactic." Suddenly he reached for his sidearm. I was about to arise when Serena rebooted him. He grabbed his forehead, crying out with pain. "Ah .."

  "Tell all your men to line up against that wall," I said.

   He looked up at me, pain still evident on his face. "Why would I do that?"

   I glanced at Serena, and she rebooted him again. This time the man screamed out with pain, fell to one knee, then to his side, crying out as he hit the floor. Then he went silent.

   Serena was as surprised as any of us. "What happened?"

  "I think you just gave him an aneurysm," Clemont said.

  "Is he dead?" Korrina asked.

  "Does it matter?" Calem said.

   Just then two other crew members approached us. They looked at the prone engineer, then back at us. "What happened?"

  "He fainted," Clemont said.

  "Who are you?"

   Before Serena could reboot them, I pulsed, dropping them both to the ground. "How many more are there down here?" I asked.

  "There are two working on that engine over there," Serena said, pointing to the farthest engine near the back of the room. "Calem and I can get them." She looked at him. "Ready?"

   Calem lays the backpack down. "Let's get them." They walked over to the men.

  "That makes six crew," Clemont said. "That's about right for a night shift."

  "We need to get these guys out of the way," I said. I pointed to a small door. "What's that room?"

  "It's a head," Clemont said. "The bathroom."

  "We'll lock them in there."

   The bathroom door opened inward and Clemont, Korrina, and I carried the four men--the two crew members, the engineer, and guard--inside and stacked them on top of one another. As we lay the last man on top, Serena and Calem came around the corner. Calem was dragging two men by their feet.

  "Put them in there," I said.

   Calem dragged them to the bathroom, then lifted the men and threw them on top of the others. I pulled the door shut.

  "How do we lock it from the outside?" Serena asked.

  "Like this," Clemont said. He walked across the room, grabbed the guard's rifle, then came back and wedged it between the door's handle and the doorjamb. "That will hold them," he said.

  "All right," I said. "Let's plant the explosives and get out of here."

  "Where should I put them?" Calem asked.

  "It shouldn't matter," Clemont said. "That much explosive will obliterate everything within two hundred feet. But generally speaking, the tighter the fit the better."

  "But hide it," Serena said. "In case someone comes down here after we're gone."

  "How about back here," Calem said, wedging the pack behind one of the engines. "They won't see it."

  "Bonus," Clemont said. "That looks like a fuel line running across the wall next to it."

  "How long are you setting the timer for?" I asked.

  "What do you think?" Calem asked.

  "I'll say thirty minutes," Clemont said.

  "You'd better make it forty," I said. "Just in case.

  "All right," Calem said. "I'm activating it. Everyone ready?"

  "Do it," Serena said.

   Calem pushed four buttons. The timer emitted a long, steady tone, then stopped. "We're live."

  "Let's keep it that way," I said. "Let's go."

   Suddenly an alarm went off outside the engine room, reverberating loudly down the corridor.

  "What's that?" Serena asked.

  "Maybe they've discovered the board's escape," Clemont said.

  "We better get out of here fast," I said.

   Suddenly a voice boomed from a speaker box mounted below a surveillance camera. "It's too late for that, Ketchum."

   I'd recognize that voice anywhere. It belonged to Cyrus.

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